Awareness Newsletters, Posters, and Blog Posts - Lame?

February 13, 2013

Community Resources

Security Awareness Posters

A common misconception I run into with awareness materials is they cannot change behaviors. For example, posters. We released a new security awareness poster called "You Are A Target", which explains to Ordinary Computers Users why they are a target and identifies all the different ways criminals can make money off of you. This is a great way to engage people and help them understand why they need to be secure. However a common reply I get from the technical security community is a single poster is lame, it will never change human behavior. Why do we even bother? *sigh*, of course a single poster will never change human behavior. Nor will a single newsletter, single video nor a single blog post. If you are going to effectively change human behavior, you need to continually reach out to people and reinforce key behaviors. So no, a single poster will not save the day. However, if your poster is combined with newsletters, combine with videos, combined with phishing assessments - over a long period of time, then yes you can and will change human behavior. For awareness to be effective you can't look at a single item or a single training, you have to look at the entire package, is everything working together towards the same goal. For more resources on how to plan your awareness program be sure to check out our free resources section.

About the Author

Lance Spitzner

Director, SANS Security Awareness

Lance has over 20 years of security experience in cyber threat research, awareness and training. He invented the concept of honeynets, founded the Honeynet Project and helped pioneer the field of cyber intelligence. Lance has published three security books, consulted in over 25 countries and helped hundreds of organizations establish mature security awareness programs. Lance serves on the Board for the NCSA, is a frequent presenter, serial tweeter ( @lspitzner ) and works on numerous community security projects. He served as an armor officer in the Army's Rapid Deployment Force and earned his MBA from the University of Illinois.